Saturday

January 17

OF things that are external, happen what will
to that which can suffer by external accidents.
Those things that suffer let them complain
themselves, if they will; as for me, as long
as I conceive no such thing, as that that which is
happened is evil, I have no hurt; and it is in
my power not to conceive any such thing.

MARCUS AURELIUS. MEDITATIONS. Book vii. 11.

AT ANY things there be, which oftentimes insensibly
trouble and vex thee, as not armed
against them with patience, because they go not
ordinarily under the name of pains, which indeed
are of the same nature as pain; as to slumber
unquietly, to suffer heat, to want appetite: when
therefore any of these things make thee discontented,
check thyself with these words:
"Now
hath pain given thee the foil: thy courage hath
failed thee."

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Using this Blog

I found Words of the Ancient Wise in late 2008, and my wife and I had been reading the passages fairly consistently since. 2017 is the ninth year of our run through these texts. Re-reading the old comment reveals some interesting truths about our lives.

About Me

Note

This book was compiled by W. H. D. House (M.A. Litt. D) and originally published in 1906. The frontispiece holds the following:

These extracts are taken from the translations of Marcus Aurelius by Meric Casaubon (1634 and 1635), and of Epictetus by Elizabeth Carter (1758). A few corrections, alterations, and omissions have been made.